THQ Nordic is purchasing Koch Media, the parent company of game publisher Deep Silver, the publisher behind Saint's Row and the Metro games.

Back when THQ declared bankruptcy and auctioned off its sizable portfolio, many of the game publisher's IPs went to Nordic Games and Koch Media. After the auctions, Nordic Games was rebranded as THQ Nordic in a bid to gain more name recognition.

At the time, Nordic Games bought the rights toDarksiders, Red Faction and MX vs. ATV alongside a number of other titles for $4.9 million. Koch Media acquired Saint's Row developer Volition for a whopping $23 million and the publishing rights to the Metro seriesfor $5.8 million. Crytek purchased Homefront for $500,000, but later sold the IP to Koch Media, which published games in these series under its Deep Silver game-publishing label.

With all these properties now at THQ Nordic, a large swath of THQ's former properties are once again reunited. Other THQ properties remain scattered across the industry. Relic Entertainment was purchased by Sega and the South Park rights were snatched up by Ubisoft. Darksiders developer Vigil was never acquired, but many of its former members now work for THQ Nordic and are at work on Darksiders III.

Good News For Games

All told, this is likely a good move for both companies.

"Given the ongoing consolidation in the games industry, we think the combination makes a lot of sense as Koch Media’s games business was relatively small and wasn't performing very well, recently," says Newzoo CFO, Thijs Hagoort. "The deal allows THQ Nordic to scale up by acquiring IP & assets with significant upside potential, as well as adding a complementary business in the form of partner publishing. THQ Nordic has proven that it can release quality games around exiting IP in the past years. Its success with franchises such as Darksiders, Titan Quest, and de Blob have grown its revenues from $26 million in 2015 to $62 million in 2017.

"The deal brings diversification both in terms of geography and business models," Hagoort adds. "We would expect Koch Media’s film business to be spun off in due course, as it does not seem a natural fit with the other activities of the enlarged group. Though Deep Silver will continue to operate as a separate entity, we expect the acquisition will result in the same high quality for Deep Silver’s upcoming titles as THQ Nordic has been publishing the past years. This means successful releases of new games from IPs such as Saint Row, Dead Island, and Metro are expected in the future."

Other games under the THQ Nordic banner include upcoming BioMutant (which looks great) and This Is The Police. Koch Media and Deep Silver also have publishing rights to the Dead Island series.

The Koch Media acquisition comes at a time when the company has seen poor returns on its investments, including some major flops with Agents of Mayhem and Homefront The Revolution.

In a statement, THQ Nordic notes: "Following less successful launches in recent years with substantial write-offs in the business area (primarily Agents of Mayhem and Homefront), Koch Media has made significant organisational changes in its management, internal steering and control, technology, as well as its selection process for development of IPs.

"With the competence THQ Nordic possesses on management level, Koch Media will be better positioned to deliver the full potential of its development projects in the future."